OLYMPIA — As speakers and protesters here celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some sobering new numbers are out on student homelessness in Washington state.

Just before New Year’s, Kathy Heffernan’s new landlord announced that her rent on a two-bedroom unit at the Linda Manor Apartments in West Seattle would go up on March 1, from $1,000 to $2,300 — a 130 percent increase.

Across the Northwest, some families will spend Christmas in rented mobile homes where the living conditions are marginal at best and dangerous at worst. So who’s inspecting these manufactured homes? It turns out that they fall into a regulatory gray area.

In response to widespread opposition, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has shelved its controversial plan to raise rents for thousands of its tenants.